Recently, I started to experience back pain that I thought had “resolved” since last summer. The pain begins in the back of my left hip (low low back/glut area) and continues around the side of my left leg to the knee. It doesn’t seem to be exacerbated when walking, rather while lying down or bending past the waist, leaning away from the painful side. Perhaps most interesting is that my back pain can be described as trigger point-like (in that I feel like if I could just manage to crack my back at that one point, I could get a tremendous amount of relief) while my leg pain is a burning/tingling discomfort. Although somewhat different symptoms, they certainly feel related.
For a little over a year, I’ve intermittently experienced the same or a very similar presentation of symptoms. Although the severity of my leg pain would vary, the localized, back trigger point remained the same. I’ve actually visited a chiropractor and an orthopedist, but neither seemed to really think anything was serious. I had two separate X-rays respectively performed, but I don’t think it showed any significant symptoms. Although my chiropractor said that my spine was out of wack, he didn’t ever really get to the point of making any real progress in relieving my back pain. So that was the end of that.
Luckily, the pain seemed to clear up for awhile, but in the past couple of days returned. Last night, I was so uncomfortable that I ended up waking up and not being able to fall asleep for 4 hours. In the danger of self diagnosing, I did a ton of research into what might be causing this problem. At first, it appeared to be related to a sciatiaca issue, but my pain isn’t in the back of my thigh nor does it radiate past my knee and into my toes. What I found to be most applicable is a possible nerve/disc problem at L3-L4. It seems that I have the same trigger point and range of radicular symptoms; however, I am unsure of whether this can only be caused by a herniated disc or something less serious. Although uncomfortable and certainly painful, it does not seem that my symptoms are severe enough to warrant such a serious diagnosis.
I’m a 23 year old female who is very active. I run 4-5 times a week and work out at the same frequency. I was a competitive gymnast for 14 years, but did not experience any such back pain while actively competing. In fact, despite my workout regime, it does not seem that the pain is triggered nor made worse by any of my physical activity. It comes and goes at irregular intervals and for irregular periods of time. Although I know should be going to a doctor, given my past experience, I’d rather not have to shell out more money for further diagnostic studies and co-pays only to find out that it does not seem that anything is wrong.
If anyone has experienced any similar symptoms, pain, or has any idea of what this may be, i’d GREATLY appreciated any advice/direction that could be provided.
THANK YOU SO MUCH